Online Presence and Social Media for Academics Attending and Presenting at Events

Online Presence and Social Media for Academics Attending and Presenting at Events

The best time to share about your upcoming talk or presentation is before it happens. Some people find that their most engaged post on social media is announcing that you’ve submitted your abstract to speak (or your publication). People are excited by the possibility and what you care about. Telling your story of your upcoming speaking engagement is a great way to do that. 

Sharing on social media can start early, but I don’t want you to think it’s the only way to help your online presence and the people coming to your talk. You’re going to explore many ideas today, but you don’t have to try all of them. I hope that there’s at least one idea that resonates with you and you’d feel comfortable trying it yourself.

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When you submit an abstract for or are invited to speak

Add your website URL and social media handle to your bio. This will help people find you before, during, and after your presentation.

I’ve just submitted an abstract to speak at…

Announce that you’ve submitted – If you’ve been invited to speak, a good time to share on social media is when you’ve agreed or committed to that engagement. It’s great to add your social media handle and a link to your personal academic website if you have one, along with your bio. You might add that information to your CV.

Connect with people before you go

Once your talk is confirmed, you can add it to your website and you might take time to connect with your fellow panelists or event organizers before the event.

Conference Hashtag

If there is one, you can check out the conference hashtag and make plans with people who will also be at the event that you want to see, especially if you live in different cities or countries.

Business cards

If you have a business card, add your social media handle and website there is a good idea.

Share your talk on social media

When you’re sharing your talk on social media, people need more information than you expect. They need to know what your talk is about, when your talk is to know if they can attend, what the event is, and any link where they can learn more information. This is something you can share on any social media platform or across all your platforms.

Some professors hesitate to share their upcoming talk on Facebook where they may have a more personal audience, but these people are excited by what you care about when it comes to your research and how you choose to spend your energy. You might include , on all social media posts, any definition or story that helps people better understand why this talk or research matters to you.

Tag people or organizations that are related to your talk or event. 

The conference hashtag can be added to your post about your talk but you can also add a hashtag that relates to the topic of what you are presenting on.

You can share the post about your talk before, during or after the event. 

Create a graphic or infographic

If you create a graphic or share an image to go with your talk, a great resource is Writing image Descriptions on Accessible Social – which helps you create social media posts accessible for people with disabilities.

Want a quick personal academic website?

If you don’t have one already, you might create a personal academic website with Owlstown.

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The next ideas are for things you can do while the event is happening.

Check out the conference hashtag, again

If you checked out the event hashtag, you might find that people weren’t using it. Once the event starts, you can start using the conference hashtag and check it out! See if there is a conversation you want to be part of, or an event you want to check out.

Be open about your online presence

The best thing you can do for your online presence while at an in person event, is to be open that you have a website or that you’re on social media.

Help people find and connect with you

You can make this easier for people by making a QR code that helps people go to your website, have this info on a business card, create a hand out with information or resource about your talk (that includes people need to your online presence) , or use an end slide in your presentation to help people connect with you after the event is over.

Resources to take home and share

When you create a resource like a handout or links /slides to share, that can go on your personal academic website. They can also be shared on social media using that conference hashtag to help people find this resource that you’ve already taken the time to gather.

Will this be recorded?

Ask if there is going to be a recording. Sometimes, there isn’t an official recording but you can ask if you can record yourself.

Stay connected once you’re gone

Connect with people you meet or you like and admire on social media, while at the conference. Helps others be more likely to learn about you.

It’s okay if you don’t do any of that too

I have never had time for any of that at conferences, personally. In person events can be overwhelming for me as an introvert. Because of that, I don’t have the brain capacity to remember things like take a photo, much less record some videos. 

Anything I just talked about – some of those things can be prepped in advance others you don’t have to do live (you can do afterward)

Next are ideas you can do after your presentation or talk is over.

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Record your talk

Whether there was a recording of your talk or not, you could always record your talk and slides using zoom, then post the video to your website or social media. There are options to share the full version of your talk, if you like to. You can just share the title slide, or full text version of the talk, or even the full slides.

Connect with people when you’re back at home

If you didn’t connect with people during the event, sometimes connecting AFTER the event is easier. You can look at the conference hashtag. Look through the business cards you collected.  See the conference program and look at the bios to see who is on social media.

Create and/or share resources

If you didn’t have resources to share at your talk, if there are things you want people to know after the fact, you can create a graphic or handout that is shareable on social media or a page on your website.

Celebrate other people

While you can post about your own talk, you can also post about your panel and thank the conference and event organizers. If you want to participate in the conference community but not want to talk about your own talk, you can celebrate others instead. It’s a great opportunity for PIs to celebrate their lab members or grad students who are at the event. There are so many ways to celebrate people instead of yourself, if that feels comfortable or more exciting for you.

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Take a picture before your talk

These don’t have to be professional shots. A messy desk shot or photo of you working on your slides or going over your notes on the plane. Something that feels quick or easy to you.

Take pictures during the event

Snap a photo of things you see, people you meet, friends you catch up with. Ask someone to take photos of you while you’re speaking or pose at the conference. 

You could record a video of your talk

This can be before, during, or after the event.

You can record a video about your talk

Record a short video introducing your talk and the main takeaways. This video is especially for people who couldn’t be there live for your presentation.

Record some b-roll

If you like video, record b-roll video. Take a sip of coffee, getting ready to speak, short travel clips, video of fellow panelists or friends. These might be put into a longer video or Instagram reel. 

But these might feel like too much – so even though they are fun ideas, don’t be stressed if you do none of them.

What feels most do-able for you?

Here are tips for virtual events specifically.

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